Discoaster multiradiatus in the Paleoce~e of S E England
Andrew Godfrey, Paleoservices Ltd., 1-Jatford and Alan Lord, UniversityCollege London.
The Thanetof Kent, S.E.
have been bios
Paleoceneageof microfossil groups. The Thanet s
vms defined on these units and has
its type area in the Isle of Thanet, eastern Kent. For fullofthe sediments, the locali
mentioned below, age
nannofossil studies see Curry et al. (1978, pp. 20·-·21, Table i) and(in Lord 1982, pp. 137-143,• 6.1, Table 6.!).
Prior to the work of Hamilton the base of the Discoaster multiradiatus Zone(NP9) has been placed approximately at the junction ofthe Thanet and ·Reading/
Woolwich Formations in the Kent sequence (Curry et al., 1978, Table l). Ha-milton (op. dt.) in a re-investigation of the Paleocene of eastern Kent
covered a single D. multiradiatus in the top of the Thanet Formation at Recuh€:rand consequently Tm-rered the NP8/NP9 boundary. A more detailed investigationof the same Reculver - Herne Bay section by Aub:t."Y ( 1983, pp. 48-49)
tofind D. Multiradiatus and as a consequence she assigned the entire Thanet
Formation to NP8, although noting that younger levels of the Thanetmight nonetheless belong to Zone NP9. The importance of the precof
this boundary stems from the wide use of the sname 1 Thanetian'the type area.

We have carefully re-examined the first occurrence level of D. mul(= base NP9) in the Paleocene of Kent. First, we looked again a-t-~---"-·---.·--::of Hamiltons original sediment sample (her actual slide be.ing noand failed to find further specimens of D. multiradiatus. Second, we
the entire sequence of Thanet and Reading/Woolwich Formations at Pegwell
and Reculver - Herne Bay, with very accurately located samples collected as
far as possible from fresh sediments in foreshore exposures. A single D.
radiatus was foundthe Thanet Formation at the top of the Pegwell Bay section,i.e. stratigraphically even lower than the previous record from the top of
the formation of Reculver.
All normaland laboratory procedures to avoid contamination were taken
and we there for bethat our record, however, how much s
should be attached to a smatter ofnannofloral as14, Reculver Silts,

Details

1lJCL - 1999-1

to the NaturalResearch
1 for financ
and to Prof. D. Curry and Hr. D. Hard forld
References :Aubry, M. P. ( l: Bios
dude 1 1
du Nord-Ouest, Etude fondee sur les narmofossiles calcaires. Documents
82

INA Newsletter vol. 6 - 1984des Laboratoires de Geologie Lyon No. 89: 1-317
Curry, D. et al. (1978) : A correlation of Tertiary rocks in the British Isles.
Geological Society of London Special Report No. 12: 1-72
Lord, A.R. (1982) : A stratigraphical indexo£ Calcareous Nannofossils. Horwood/
British Micropaleontological Society: l-192

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